//------------------------------// // Chapter: Five // Story: BookHoppers: Exiled from Home // by Ace of Blackjack //------------------------------// Anna Boutrade  “Astral: Purple-Flipping-Nuple. Day: 16 News, I read the news today. Not like a normal newspaper, like a specially tailored one to us. It tells about mundane things happening back in these ponies towns, it has a list of birthdays of importance. It lists everything from gained to lost territory, we gained nothing and lost a flank in some marsh. Not like it matters, well it should. I live here now. On the topic of my goals, of which I've been making progress on as you know. I got a stuffed animal, may sound stupid but it's something to hold in my sleep. Something to hold under my feathered wing as I walk. You know, something to have of my own, not of Astral’s but of my own. On the topic of wings. Me, Author, Triagein, Sl’Gruimian, and Charlie are the only ponies I can tell that have Feathered wings. Out of those four two of them are Battleloggers, three if you count me. But I made it my mission to find out why it's different. And I learned a lot from it. This isn't the first major war in this universe. Heck ain't even really that far off from their last war.  The ponies whose uniform I'm wearing right now are Called the Theristrians, which is mainly a group of nocturnal bat ponies. It's interesting overhearing conversations, because of all these stories one stuck with me. It was from a farmer talking about how this used to be crop land. This Farmer is just here, not enlisted just wandered in with a long barrel double-barrel shotgun with a bottle for a sight duck taped to it.  Their diet relies on a nocturnal berry strand, and some other fruits, though some low maintenance crops that don't require much tending are on the table. Such as mangos. I don't know why but mangoes are viewed as a dessert and as such is a dessert ration.  But the problem with their eating habits is that their nocturnal berries are very sensitive to light. And as such are grown at night and then covered with basically a tarp. It's strange, but I can understand why they do it. The berries are beyond delicious, honestly. But getting back on topic of what I learned from asking a feathered pony who isn't a BattleLogger. Mister Charlie.  His father is a BattleLogger. Which opened the floodgates for me about how that's possible. And it was a simple answer. Grapeleap Gliff. It's a little Gliff that binds the BattleLogger to this World, I've checked I don't have it on myself. Both parties when doing the Gliff have to agree to do it. So the owner of the body and the one who takes control of it.  Oddly discomforting, as it means that the one who owns the body fades away. Death as they say. Their soul leaves and is replaced by the BattleLoggers soul.  This means that ain't the reason I'm like this, as I never spoke to Astral. I have some info from others on them. And I know how other ponies reacted to them. Like the plague, afraid I'll snap at them. They were depressed and snapped at ponies. And then I came in. I had arrived when they had a razor in their hoofs and a sharpening stone in the other. I'm not dumb, I knew what they were gonna do.  After that. Well you know, I talk about it enough as is. I also know. Eh, whatever I'll finish this later I'm gonna go to sleep. I'll either have to watch tomorrow or I'll be on the medbay.  Elizabeth looked at her book and pushed it away pulling out the history book. She tapped the front cover. And then opened it up. The noise of a narrated voice startled her as she looked at a hologram. It was of a symbol similar to her United Confederacy. Different countries with a row of flowers around it.  “The History of the Conflict on-”  “Nope!” Elizabeth rather loudly said slamming the book closed. She doesn't know why the premise of a book that narrates itself is so terrifying. But it is so very much.  Elizabeth looked around then looked at her other book. Anna surely has some stories detailing the battle in of itself. Or maybe another journaler has more details on the history. “Uh BDI, can you bring up an Excerpt? Maybe a whole page of this explaining it. Not narrated, I just, it weirded me out a book that spoke to me.” Elizabeth asked, looking at the table, anticipating the hologram. But it didn't appear to be helpful. She blinked. “BDI?” “BDI you here?” “BDI!” She's sprinting with her techno glasses on, they have reverted to seeing everything at once. She can see how high her heartbeat is, medical textbooks tells her that this is so far from normal rate. Her hoofs hit the ground as she sprinted, for all this tech it's mini-map is surprisingly helpful. It marked on her H.U.D a simple yet easy to follow marker, the marker in of itself lead to Frazzle. How it knew this she didn't even care. It was helping her out. She looked behind her and groaned. She dropped the BattleLogger book out from underneath her wings. With them barely out her side she got lift, and she took to flying over the bookshelves. She soars over the shelves, scattering the hidden dust at the top of the tall shelves. Ponies looked at her, the little glowing blue walkways posed little threat as she tucked wings and flew. Adrenaline, that's what this feeling is. And she felt she needed it. All of it. Something she's kinda glad about about her body is the fact she knew she could kick like a mule. Frazzle? It's saying she's right there? But the spot where they are is empty? She glided in a circle around the spot. Then she heard a flutter of wings, beating at the air differently. But she's heard it before.  She turned to see the Bat pony struggling to keep a hover behind her. Armour from the Dorian era rested on them. Dark brooding steel, jagged edges and a not very odd lunar theme. The Bat pony slowly floated around her in a slow circling glide. Elizabeth looked at the curiosity in their movements. But upsetness overwhelmed her calmness. She flew underneath them and fluttered her wings, flipping around to look at them gliding about. She looked at them and at their awkward look. Before pointing towards the ground with a wing, quickly enough that she barely lost height in the movement. “Frazzle, where is she? Tell me!” The bat tilted their head before gliding away. Elizabeth followed after them for a second, the purple of their wings flapping barely enough to stay at the same altitude. The near black fur of the Bat pone contrasted all the bright white that this library is so full of. Elizabeth pulled away, just a waste of time. She fluttered her wings to get away from the bat pone. The bat pone quickly turned around in a loop to get in front of the pegasus. “Are you taking me to her? You can say something for Gumdrop's sake.” Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at how suddenly assertive she's feeling. But her smile disappeared as the Bat pone flashed it's rather counterintuitive fangs at her. It quickly closed the distance to her.